Since tires play such an important role in establishing the personality of a vehicle, numerous vehicle manufacturers require their tire suppliers identify some or all of their Original Equipment (OE) tires with symbols or codes branded on the sidewalls that confirm the tire's original use.
The vehicle and tire manufacturer's goal is to make it easier for the owners to identify and select exact replacements when the Original Equipment tires wear out because matching the original tires exactly helps maintain the vehicle's intended personality.
Unfortunately, many vehicles wear out tires in pairs (rather than sets of four) due to a lack of maintenance or when equivalent tread wear can't be achieved through periodic tire rotation. While it can't make up for performance differences due to tread depth, it is most important to match new tires to those originally used on the vehicle when replacing tires in pairs.
The following list provides the symbols or codes currently in use:
Make | Vehicle |
Symbols/Codes |
---|---|---|
Audi | Some Vehicles | A |
AO | ||
RO1 | ||
RO2 | ||
AOE (Reduced-Range Extended Mobility Tire) | ||
BMW | Some Vehicles | 5-Pointed Star Symbol |
Honda | Acura NSX | H0 |
H1 | ||
Hyundai | Some Vehicles | H |
HN | ||
Jaguar | Some Vehicles | J |
"J" in a circle | ||
Mercedes | Some Vehicles | MO |
MO1 | ||
MOE (Reduced-Range Extended Mobility Tire) | ||
Some SUVs | MO-S | |
Some Vans | MO-V | |
Mini | Some Vehicles | 5-Pointed Star Symbol |
Porsche | All Vehicles Pre-2019 | N0, N1, N2, etc. |
911 | NA0, NA1, NA2, etc. | |
Boxster/Cayman | NB0, NB1, NB2, etc. | |
Cayenne | NC0, NC1, NC2, etc. | |
Panamera | ND0, ND1, ND2, etc. | |
Macan | NE0, NE1, NE2, etc. | |
Taycan | NF0, NF1, NF2, etc. |
The numerical escalation of Porsche N-Spec tires reflects either enhancements to the previous generation of the same tire model or a change in the design specifications of a tire model used on a current Porsche vehicle to better complement the needs of a new Porsche vehicle.